France
France is a kingdom starting in Western Europe, in the French Region. It is one of the most interesting and entertaining nations to play in the game due to its sheer strength and countless flavor events. The nation allows players to make errors with hampered ramifications. Due to its powerful military, taking down France as an outside nation can be difficult. In 1444 bookmark, France is surrounded by weaker nations which gives room for easy expansion. France starts out guaranteeing independence to Scotland, in an alliance with Provence, and with cores on all the English land in France (except Calais). Strategy France should focus on unifying its cultural cores early, this won't be too hard as England has fewer troops than France and is forced to navally invade. Take your cores back from England but do this in a war you declare yourself: otherwise, the attacker is England and you don't get the reconquest CB! From there, France has four common ways to expand. First, expanding into Italy. The French player will often get missions to expand into Italy, which is a rich region and probably has the highest development in the game. However, it is a tightly contested region, and moving into it can make powerful enemies very quickly, especially the Holy Roman Emperor if the player expands there before 1490. If the player wishes to move into Italy, a good way to do so early is by getting the "transfer subject" bonus in the age of discovery. It can be used to have other countries make their subjects the player's subjects pretty quickly. It can be used to gain Naples from Aragon, which is probably most important since it is bigger than any other subjects on the Italian peninsula. Combined with some early conquests in Savoy, France can position itself to dominate Italy early. Secondly, one can expand into the low countries. It is easier to expand into than Italy. Enemies in the region are usually very weak early (with the exception of Burgundy who shouldn't be taken on alone early), and there are usually few other great powers looking to expand into it that early. Like Italy, its provinces are rich and will help France control the trade node shared with the English. However, it is much more difficult to retain. Later in the game, Dutch rebellions are some of the worst in the game as rivals will have the option to defend them. Thirdly, one can expand into Africa. Historically France invaded Algeria, and it is an easy area to move into. There is usually very little competition for the area with other great powers, and the countries in the area are usually very weak, especially Tlemcen. However, the area is Muslim and has increased coring cost, making it harder to convert and worsening rebellions. The region also has weak development, meaning that the gains made from it are smaller than in Italy or the Low Countries, but it is easier to take and maintain. However, it also opens up more opportunities for easy expansion. If the player is doing this, religious or humanist are a must early on (though religious is recommended for long-term benefits of actually converting provinces). Fourth is colonialism. England, Spain, and Portugal will have better colonial expansion benefits through better settler increase, more colonists through national ideas, and different colonial events. However, France's national idea offers it a chance to go the middle way in colonialism without the penalties. It will get no native attacks and have a very good assimilation rate. This makes France among the best colonial nations if France isn't moving troops into the new world. France also has some unique historical colonial events and missions. Be aware, however, that in multiplayer France will often have strong enemies in the mainland, and oftentimes expansion might not be a good choice for the French player. However, if other usual colonial competitors are not expanding fast, or if you have few enemies in mainland Europe, colonial expansion may be a good choice for France.